Homestead Survival

<08 August 2024, THE VALLEYS OF AR'HA'NURA , A->
[Theo and Julia]
Julia woke Theo as the sky began to brighten. The goblins had left an hour or so ago. Theo groaned and stretched while he munched on a meat stick. After a few moments of staring into the forest, Theo rolled his shoulders.

"Alright," Theo said quietly, "Let's head out, try and get to the beach and get some sand before the Dwarves are an issue."

Julia nodded, and they took off, using the Map Codex Fragment to travel in a straight line to the beach. They heard the chopping of axes and elected to ignore it, moving fast.

They got to the beach in roughly three hours, and Theo immediately tried to put a bunch of sand into his raw materials slots, but he only managed to put an individual grain of sand into each slot.

"Fuck." Theo cursed, trying all of his slots. The same proved true for all the pouch slots on both his and Julia's pouch.

"Now what?" Julia wondered, and then her eyes lit up. "Ohh! Oh! What about your Dimensional Storage?!"

Theo smiled brightly as he started channeling the skill. "That is a fantastic idea."

"You should see if you can get it to appear with the lid on top like a chest," Julia said.

Theo did just that, and a few moments later, his black varnished cube of storage was there, with the lid facing up. They opened it, and Theo rapidly transferred all the items in it to his pouch.

"Alright," Theo said, taking his Master Tool in hand and forming it into a massive scooping shovel. "Time to work."

Theo worked furiously for the remaining moments that the Dimensional Storage was open and managed to get three or four good scoops. So he channeled the skill again, and the moment that it appeared, he opened the lid and began shoveling. After the two minutes and twelve seconds that the skill remained open, Theo was soaked in sweat, and he realized that this was going to take him fifteen total minutes of the chest being open.

It was as he started to channel the Dimensional Storage skill again that they started to hear a somewhat familiar chant. Julia frantically laid down multiple layers of Ward runes to protect them. Then, the chant rang out loud and strong.

"DRAKARN, VOKN'UMR.
SULVETHELEN, HÛRM'NOR.
GRUMDAUN, THALDAUN.
ZORUN'GLAV, VRAG'NOR."

As they began shoveling, a Dwarf broke the tree line and was in the middle of taking a deep breath to continue the chant when he saw Julia standing there while Theo shoveled. The Dwarf cried out, dropping the basket of something it had been carrying. "DURG'AH!"

At that, every Dwarf formed a line, their axes, swords, and other tools coming up in a ready stance.

Julia chuckled nervously. "Haha... Hello, you wouldn't be able to just let us finish what we are doing, would you?"

The Dwarves stepped forward in unison. One of the dwarves looked at Julia in curiosity. It began muttering to the Dwarf, who seemed to be calling the shots. They all stepped forward and were about to hit the Ward runes when the lead Dwarf spoke again. "ZHÛVRAG."

It pointed to the ground at the ring of Ward runes. Soon, Theo and Julia were surrounded, and the Dwarf who had looked at them funny had run off. Theo shrugged, "Well, I guess there is no reason to stop working."

Julia watched the Dwarves carefully. When one was about to step on the Ward runes, she tried to say the only thing she thought might have some meaning as it pertained to the runes. "Zoo-vrog!"

The Dwarf looked at his feet and then stepped back carefully. The lead dwarf gave her a funny look and then said what Julia had said in a very smooth, almost musical tone. "Zoo-vrog?"

Julia shrugged, then said it again. "Zoo-vrog?"

Suddenly, Theo's Interdimensional Storage snapped shut and disappeared; Theo started channeling it, and after twenty-five seconds, it came back, and the Dwarves began muttering among themselves.

After two more times, his Interdimensional Storage closed after he shoveled. The Dwarves had relaxed some but were still keeping their weapons drawn when the Dwarf that had run off returned with a younger-looking Dwarf who did not have the stone-tough look of the grown dwarves. The lead Dwarf stepped forward and spoke to the young Dwarf. The young Dwarf nodded and then gestured to Theo and Julia, followed by the Ward runes.

He motioned urgently from outside the Ward runes. Making a gesture like he wanted one of them to come to the edge of the Ward runes. Julia stepped forward. Theo stopped shoveling. "Julia..."

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"It's fine. He does not seem aggressive." Julia said as she offered her hand to the younger Dwarf. He grabbed it and jerked her towards him out of the circle, and several things happened at once.

Theo shifted his Master Tool into a Hammer, and his dagger appeared in his hand.

The young Dwarf activated a skill.

The other Dwarves were panicking.

Theo stepped forward, and Julia knew he was about to Taunt them all into the wards.

Julia read the message that was broadcast.

> Local Area Message:
> WARNING: User Harbek Runevein has guaranteed the safety of User Julia Brahmin for the next two hours as part of an exchange required for the Skill Polyglot. The members of Clan Molbrak will abide by this decree.

Julia shouted out, "Theo, Stop!"

Everyone froze. They all read the message, and then the young Dwarf spoke. "Am I sorry for that, aye—but needed I this one set beyond the Runes, so my Skill might take hold."

Theo stopped and put his dagger away. He kept the hammer. "Does she need to remain outside the runes?"

"Needs she not, no."

"Please let go of her and let her step back into the runes," Theo said, doing his best to let his voice sound neutral.

The young Dwarf let Julia's hand go, and Julia stepped back inside. A rushed conversation was held between the young Dwarf and the leader. Then the young Dwarf spoke. "Is my name Harbek Runevein, of Clan Molbrak. Apologize I do, for yanking your hand. Instructed I've been—to ask three questions of you. One—When here you were yesterday, to whom did you report? Two—What seek you here, now? Three—Mean you any harm to Clan Molbrak?"

"We did not report to anyone; we went back to our camp, where we had just had a number of crossbows leveled on us," Theo said, and Harbek translated this as he heard it. "Secondly, we literally just need sand to make mortar. And finally, no, if anything, you are our neighbors, so we would like to have good relations with you and your clan."

There was a rush of conversation before Harbek spoke again. "Take down the Runes you will, summon the black box once more, and fill it with sand we shall—then leave you will, aye? Return you ever do, ask for me, Harbek. Deal, is it?"

Theo looked at Julia, who shrugged, and the Ward runes vanished. Theo felt naked all of the sudden. As he channeled his Dimensional Storage skill, one of the dwarves ran to grab a basket that had large flat shovels in it. The other dwarves grabbed the shovels, and then, as soon as the lid was opened, they wanted to work, moving more sand than they had any right to be able to. It took the dwarves one opening of the box to fill it to the brim.

"Have you your sand now. Leave you shall. And return you do, ask for me." Harbek said.

Theo and Julia turned to leave and power walked out of there. They didn't stop until they got to the foot of the goat path to the top of the Mesa. Theo stopped and took a breath. "I thought we were fucked."

"Me too!" Julia laughed, "he pulled me out, and I thought I was a goner. I will say the look on your face was a little funny. You almost seemed mad that I fell for it, but also that you were about to fuck shit up. It was funny."

"I was mad," Theo said and did a joke imitation of her voice. "It's fine; he does not seem aggressive."

Julia laughed, "Okay, we made good time, it's lunch right now, probably. We might be able to get to the top before dark, but there are the bat things. If you don't want to deal with them tonight, we can stay one more night in the cave."

"If I don't want to deal with them?" Theo asked incredulously. "I think you got that mixed up."

Julia blushed, "Look, I know I have an issue, so if you don't wanna deal with them, then I sure don't."

"I am fine," Theo said, "I want out of this valley with that damn Goblin that just stares at us all night."

So they ate quickly, each taking a drink of their water and snarfing down a meat stick. Then, they set off up the goat path, making good time. They made it to the small vertical section of the path and scrambled up it with minimal effort.

"Okay, Bats," Theo said, pulling the rope they had tied off to each other with short. "You ready? Just head down and one step after another."

"Yeah," Julia said quietly, stepping up to preemptively grab Theo's hand, "Okay, let's go."

So Theo set off at a hard pace; he did not want to get stuck on this narrow trail with the bats any more than Julia did. While it had taken them almost four hours to go down past the bats initially, they had been moving slowly and being incredibly cautious. By the time they got to the top of the goat path, four hours had passed. They were both wheezing and panting, but they were done.

A part of the Ward rune circle that Julia had placed last time was still there; she reapplied the Wards that had faded or been triggered.

"Did you notice them getting triggered?" Theo asked as he pulled the tree out of his pouch and cut more of it into firewood before putting the remaining chunk back into the pouch.

"No, so maybe they faded, or they will only trigger the damage with Retaliate if they are actively protecting someone." Julia said, "But that raises other questions. Cause I thought that they were always active."

"Me too." Said Theo; he finished getting the a fire going when a sudden cacophony of sound emanated from the goat path.

A huge flock of the bat creatures rushed out from the cliff face, flying quickly away, and a series of semi-familiar guttural bellows issued forth from the path. Julia was busy layering more Ward runes around them.

Roughly an hour later, Theo looked up at a chuffing sound. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Julia looked up and saw that the large goblin was there, bloodied and scratched up, but it was there. "What is this thing's problem?"

Theo shrugged, "I don't know, it seems crazed."

Then something happened; several Goblins of equal size to the large goblin rushed out of the trees. They held spears and jabbed at the large goblin, who responded with angry bellows. Finally, the larger goblin fled. The Goblins from the trees turned to leave. One of them pointed to Julia and Theo, then made a dismissive motion. "Gnahk'z kruk!"

It turned to leave and then seemed to have a thought, then it turned back and pointed to where the larger goblin had fled. "Skreg'uk, nok drug-Skreg."

It then disappeared into the trees with its compatriots. Theo looked at Julia, "What the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea," Julia said, equally bewildered. "But I say we sleep and get a move on; I want to get back to the cabin."

Theo nodded, "Me too. Alright, you sleep first, then get me up as soon as you see the sun."

Julia nodded and lay down to sleep as Theo sat watch around the fire.